6 Days New Year Yoga Retreat Spain

Meditation and Yoga Holiday Spain

Welcome the New Year in a beautiful volcanic setting of the Canary Islands. This yoga and massage retreat in Spain will give you the chance to start the year a little differently, having fun, and most of all, relaxed and renewed! Reset your energies, find time to rest and balance with daily yoga practices, and learn the wonderful technique of Californian massage.

During this retreat, you will stay in a shared room. The space available includes a house, a loft, a studio, and a cellar bedroom.

Cellar bedroom

The cellar, facing south, has a courtyard inhabited by a centennial araucaria tree, a solarium, and a terrace surrounding that part of the house. It has a spacious double bed room with bathroom, spacious and well equipped kitchen, and a living room with two single beds.

Casa Tisalaya

For groups of six people, the house is the best option. It has two floors and is the best preserved wing. It has three bedrooms, a family room, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a wooden room with large windows, two terraces, a wood oven, a barbecue grill, private parking, and individual entrance.

Loft

The loft is a spacious room with sofa bed, a bathroom, a kitchenette, and a loft with a futon for two guests. It is ideal for short stays.

Studio

The studio is located on the first floor and it is accessed by a volcano stone staircase. It has a spacious room with wooden floors and ceilings, volcanoes window view, bathroom, living room, kitchen, and a terrace. It is ideal for couples that look for intimacy.

This retreat will give you time of stillness, meditation, and a deeply relaxing practice of Yin yoga. During this retreat, you will start every morning with a meditation session and will take part in two daily Ying yoga practices. You will also be able to learn the Californian massage technique during daily workshops.

You will start with a dynamic practice to refresh and activate the body. Whilst the evenings will allow for a time of stillness, meditation, and the deeply relaxing practice of yin yoga. You will also enjoy the ecological vegetarian meals specially prepared by your wonderful hosts Siona and Joan and have free time to explore the island to visit some of the true hidden gems of Lanzarote.

Yin yoga

The practice of Yin yoga is similar to a more yang style of yoga as far as encouraging a connection between breath, body, and mind but with a completely different focus; directing the attention to the connective tissues of the body such as ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints, which are normally not exercised in the more active approach to asana.

The practice is suitable for people of all ages and experience in yoga, and is the perfect complement for more yang-type activities which focus more on building inner heat, stretching, and strengthening the muscles.

Physical benefits

Yin yoga is in general mainly aimed at stimulating the lower body and areas surrounding the hips, pelvis, and spine. It is also different in the fact that postures are maintained for much longer periods of time. Although at first glance the practice may appear more passive, it offers to practitioners another degree of challenge where holding the postures from anywhere between one to five minutes it opens up the chance to take a first step towards meditation.

Physiologically, the benefits of yin yoga aim to stimulate the deepest tissues in the body, for example within the joints such as fascia, connective tissue, and bones. These tissues need a lighter, more moderate pressure to open and slowly liberate bodily and subsequently, emotional tensions often stored deep inside these areas of the body.

Mental benefits

According to Chinese philosophy, harmony and health can be found when all yin and yang aspects in life are in balance. Every aspect of life includes both yin and yang elements and you need both. The practice of yin yoga provides students a very valuable space to complement what is today an extremely active lifestyle (yang) and have the chance to observe and connect with their deeper, more hidden side (yin), where you stop and stay still for a while, and really come back to the present moment.

Yin yoga has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine and philosophy that incorporates the study of the body’s energy channels known as meridians connecting the different organs of the body with our outer body and inner emotions. Holding the yin postures for longer periods attracts energy towards the meridians, allowing the body to free any blocked energy, whilst regenerating and strengthening certain areas as well as improving circulation.

The practice, which is so deeply rooted in ancient wisdom and philosophy, also has the very valuable benefit of training the mind. Whilst inhabiting your body more mindfully, you can achieve a lasting feeling of great well-being that spreads way beyond the exercise itself.

In 2008, yoga became a permanent part of her life. She completed her first teacher training in Thailand, an experience that completely changed the direction of her life. She moved to Barcelona to deepen her practice and knowledge and began to explore Vinyassa, Ashtanga, Rocket, and her real passion; Yin yoga.

Xavier Gil

Xavier is a specialist in Californian massage certified in 2011 as a masseur by the Esalen Institute in San Francisco, USA. Xavier graduated in psychology with the University of Barcelona in 1995 and began his career as a therapist by studying massage therapy and advanced sports and therapeutic massage at the ITASE center in 2007, Barcelona.

This retreat will take place at Finca Tisalaya, in Lanzarote, Spain. This former agricultural settlement is in the protected area of La Geria, half-way between the softer northern landscapes of the Canary island and the powerful contours of the south.

This beautiful place to relax, invites you to enjoy the volcanic nature and recharge. The facilities combine tradition and modernity with organic farming, renewable energy, rural house with personal growth activities, a Feng Shui center, and alternative therapies.

In this unique setting, the extreme shapes and colors irradiate the energy and great beauty of the volcanoes whilst offering an incredible sense of peace and stillness. It is a place of rest and open space, to soak up in an unique environment of virgin lava rock formations, caves, hidden tracks, and centenary vineyards.

Lanzarote

Lanzarote is an island to discover the forces of nature in its pure state without artifice. The fire of volcanoes, the air of the trade winds, the Atlantic Ocean, the sand, the land sculpted by the lava flows, and real temples outdoors where you can savor the silence and live in another space-time.

Tisalaya

The area is located halfway between the north softness and the south strength of the Island, near the wildest beaches. It offers a unique environment with badlands, caves, trails, ancient cellars, and a few kilometers away from the center, the Virgin of the Volcanoes in Mancha Blanca.

During your free time, you may explore the lava flow sculpted land walking through nature in its pure state and savor the silence in another space-time. Be seduced by a unique environment with caves, trails, and ancient cellars. You may also admire the beauty of Tisalaya volcano at the center of Lanzarote. This natural outdoor monument has small volcanic cinder cones capped by semicircles of stone where the famous vineyards of Malvasia are grown.